As instant commerce becomes increasingly popular, how can consumers rely on products being in stock?  Daniel Folkman, SVP of Business at Gopuff, explains that with more than 500 micro fulfillment centers, Gopuff can guarantee delivery of its stocked products as the customer builds their order. Listen to the episode to learn more about how Gopuff is leading experiments on sample feedback data for advertisers and how the company is staying ahead of its competitors.

Tune in to learn:

• About the benefits and challenges of providing products through company-owned fulfillment centers (06:40)
• Why Daniel thinks Gopuff will outlast its competitors (12:10)
• The Gopuff ad platform (17:33)
• What avenues Gopuff is exploring to capitalize on sample tracking (22:17)

Mentions:

• “GoPuff forecasts mass extinction for ‘majority, if not all’ rivals this year” by Emily Hawkins for City A.M. on 08/29/2022 
• Rafael Ilishayev, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Gopuff 
• Yakir Gola, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Gopuff 
• PepsiCo 
• Coca-Cola 

About the Guest:

LinkedIn Bio: “Daniel Folkman is currently the Senior Vice President of Business at Gopuff, the go-to instant commerce platform that fulfills consumer’s evolving everyday needs. In his current role, Daniel Folkman oversees the company’s Global Business functions. Since joining Gopuff as one of the company’s first employees, Folkman has been a key member of the executive team, helping the company scale to 500+ micro-fulfillment centers across more than 1,000 cities across the US and Europe.

During his more than six years with the company, he has spearheaded the company’s fundraising and M&A efforts, helping to raise more than $4B in funding and leading major transactions such as BevMo!, Liquor Barn, RideOS, Fancy, and Dija. Folkman originated the concept for Gopuff Ads – identifying the power of merging a culturally relevant brand and hyperlocal logistics with the needs of CPG companies. Today, Gopuff Ads commands sizable budgets from brands like PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever and many other major CPGs. Folkman is also the driving force behind Gopuff’s major consumer partnerships with companies such as Chase, Mastercard, Hyatt, Uber, Grubhub, PayPal, Venmo, and celebrities such as Chris Paul, Selena Gomez, and more.

Daniel Folkman graduated from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in 2012 with a dual-major in Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises and Finance and a minor in Economics. While at Syracuse, Daniel participated in the Syracuse Student Sandbox, the IDEA Awards Competition and many other startup-related events. He has since spent time investing and advising in early stage startups, participating on panels at national events and conferences such as Bloomberg Tech Summit, Grocery Shop, SXSW, and speaking to Fortune 500 executive teams on innovation, new retail and digital transformation. Additionally, he serves on the Young Whitman Advisory Council for the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and is an active angel investor with 30+ investments across early stage tech and consumer goods companies.”

Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce 

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.